Brokerage Giant TP ICAP Opens Its Doors To Bitcoin Trading

Brokerage Giant TP ICAP with a $2 billion market cap is finally opening the gates wide for bitcoin trading. In today’s coming altcoin news, we find out more about their decision.

This is just another example of institutional crypto thirst since the London-based company will execute Bitcoin futures traders in the name of its clients. In an interview the man responsible for the initiative Simon Forster stated:

 “We want to be close to what’s happening within this nascent asset class because we believe it’s important to invest in the early stages of a growing market.”

The brokerage giant TP ICAP hopes that the new bitcoin trading option will attract the new clients’ money and will diversify its offering. The company which operates as an intermediary to financial, commodity and energy markets has seen a slight slump in revenue since the 2008 meltdown. Brokerage companies like ICAP mainly make trades for its banking partners but the volumes show that the company was forced to issue a profit warning in 2018.

The initiative will be conducted from London by Duncan Trenholme and Simon Forster who have plans to expand in the United States and in Asia. The ICAP services will provide derivatives trading but they won’t turn their eyes from the option to hold digital assets directly in the future. Forster admitted that the number one cryptocurrency poses a threat to traditional assets so the finance executives can’t really afford to stand on the sidelines:

 “TP ICAP also understands that this technology could disrupt or impact other asset classes where we currently operate, so we feel it’s important to be informed.”

The traditional finance firms are slowly getting into crypto as well. At the start of the year, Fidelity launched bitcoin custody services for their clients. The multi-million asset management company will also facilitate bitcoin trading in the upcoming months. Also as noted in some of the best cryptocurrency news sites, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is preparing to launch Bakkt which is a physically-settled bitcoin futures and custody offering. In the meantime, Nasdaq will launch its own platform for bitcoin derivatives in 2019.